adv. To an exceeding degree.
Using the abundance of web tools to build student interaction and cooperation in a high school literature classroom, have fun, and maybe even learn something along the way.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Three days and things are becoming routine

Things started to settle down on the third day as if it was almost routine in my classroom to take a quiz on a smartphone or netbook computer. But I did not want the same issues I had with the computers not connecting to the wireless (turns out it was a faulty wifi switch but I didn't know it at the time) so I brought out the big guns - the iPads.

We purchased a cart with 26 iPads over the summer and I put it to use for the first time. The students were extremely excited and most put down their phones to have a go. The quiz program worked perfectly (Socrative.com) but I immediately realized how easy it must be to see such a big screen from a nearby desk. Does the fact that that is one of the first things I thought of mean that I am getting cynical? I hope not. Maybe just more "wise." I realize that there must be some special advantage in using the iPads (or any other tablet) over a smartphone for this particular exercise but that wasn't happening just yet, but I did discover one that will be mentioned in my next post.

In any case, it went very well and there were no problems during the quiz. Afterwards, though, they had even more distractions because it was another new toy. That's fine because now I have a new "threat" for anyone who does not do what they should be doing on the iPad when they complete the quiz - they will have to use the netbook next time. It could be one of the first times in education history that a student has been "threatened" with the use of a certain technology if they did not act accordingly.